This website www.kickinknowledge.com, which I have done quite a bit of optimizations for, averages a score of 90 out of 100 on Google Page Speed Rank. CNN.com only scores a 81 out of 100. Google and Facebook are two of the fastest at 99 out of 100. Google and other search engines use your website speed in calculating your rank in the search engine. With over 200 different ranking factors, it is a small piece of the pie but a piece of a very profitable pie. Website speed optimization is a very broad topic with some very nerdy internals. Compression and deferring of javascript, minifying of javascript and css, image compression, and many other proper configurations can boost a websites speed. It is also important to get the right hosting from a proper hosting service. I can help you choose the right server and configurations for your specific website needs. I can also fully optimize your website and help you out-rank your competitors by leaving them in the dust!

The Top 5 Free Resources to Help Speed up Your Website

• Google Pagespeed (also comes as a firefox/firebug extension)
• Yslow (similar to #1 but from Yahoo) and other Yahoo Performance Recommendations
• Smush.it (image optimization by Yahoo)

• Enable Gzip (WP Super Cache does this for wordpress sites, for Joomla – Try Global Configuration > Server > Server Settings > GZIP Page Compression )

SEOMoz wrote a great article that covers much more – 15 Tips to Speed Up Your Website